Monday, May 24, 2010

Being right about absolutely everything, absolutely all of the time.

Please, oh please, tell me that while everyone else was celebrating Speaker Peter Milliken's Afghan detainees ruling as a MASSIVE victory for the Opposition and a wicked boot to the nads for Stephen Harper, I blogged my immediate reaction at the time -- "Oh, man, he's just setting you up and you will get fucked over." Please tell me I wrote that down somewhere. Because here you go:

Ottawa bars ministers’ staff from appearing before committeesNew Tory policy says ministers, not their staff, should be held accountable

The Conservative government is launching another showdown with the opposition over the powers of Parliament, this time issuing an edict that only cabinet ministers – and not their political staff – can appear as witnesses before committees.

The new cabinet position, to be outlined in detail Tuesday morning, comes just days after the opposition and government resolved a heated dispute over Parliament’s power to see documents related to Afghan detainees.

By all means, read the rest -- an amusing new policy sodomizing the concept of "ministerial responsibility" and carefully released to coincide with a holiday long weekend when no one is paying attention.

Please tell me I can say, "I told you so."ANOTHER GRAND EXPERIMENT: Hmmmm ... here's Blogging Tory Victor Wong, looking around carefully, then writing something lucid, hoping none of his BT colleagues notice. Let's check back in a day or so and see how well his philosophizing went down with his batshit crazy bunkmates at Stephen Taylor's House of Dumbth.

I'm guessing they're not going to be thrilled, but that's just a hunch.

Oh, I expected Harper to do all he could to fuck us over CC, it is what I expect from the man and always have. My joy was that a precedent that would have gutted what little accountability control we have left in Parliament was not set. That this ruling at least limited the harm Harper could do from then on. Then though I am a process political person as much as policy/principle one and it was on that side I was so happy and considered the ruling to be so important and impressive (and still do too, the fact that Harper is doing all he can to be the anti-democratic unaccountable PM we have all come to know and loath does not change that). I also never expected him to stop fighting over these documents being properly dealt with, the fact he went this far already despite the bad optics for him indicates there is something to them he is really worried about becoming public knowledge.

I never said I thought your cynicism about Harper on this matter was unwarranted (at least I don't think I did, and if I did or left that impression I am sorry). He has shifted the ground he wants to fight on, although he won't be able to carry it as far as he might hope so long as the three opposition parties stay united because the Speaker's ruling spoke to this very point already. Classic Harper, ignore the law and do what he wants, the level of contempt he has for Canadian institutions, laws, and Canadians is beyond anything I have ever seen from a Canadian politician. A more contemptuous of the Canadian rule of law politician let alone party leader and especially PM this nation has never seen.